Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Bangkok is facing a dual threat from
a “massive” flow of floodwater from the north and angry
residents intent on tearing down defensive walls to save their
flooded neighborhoods, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

“The dikes can’t resist the massive amount of water and
there are also problems with water pumps breaking down,”
Yingluck said today in a radio address. “The second problem is
groups of residents who live north of the flood gates want the
gates to be opened to drain water, but people who live on the
other side don’t want their areas to flood.”

Bangkok officials are protecting a network of dikes, canals
and sandbag barriers to help divert a slow-moving mass of
floodwater around the city center and protect industrial zones
east of the city. Thailand’s floods have claimed at least 442
lives since late July and shuttered 10,000 factories in
provinces north of Bangkok, disrupting global supply chains.

“We should be able to save most of the areas in the east,
including the economic zones,” Yingluck said. “For the west,
drainage is quite difficult. People in the west need to be
patient.”

A 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) wall of sandbags being completed
along a canal north of Bangkok will help ease flooding in
eastern parts of the capital, Yingluck said. Rising floodwaters
in the city’s northern suburbs yesterday forced the closure of
the Central Plaza Ladprao shopping mall, close to the city’s
famous Chatuchak weekend market.

“Water has spread to a wide area in Bangkok,” Yingluck
said. Efforts to save the city of 9.7 million people are slowing
the flow of water to the Gulf of Thailand, 30 kilometers (19
miles) to the south, exacerbating flooding in areas north, east
and west of the capital.

Inner Bangkok Dry

Bangkok’s business districts of Silom and lower Sukhumvit
Road remain dry and Suvarnabhumi Airport and public transport
links are unaffected. The airport’s perimeter is protected by a
3.5-meter-high dike, Airports of Thailand Pcl said yesterday.

“I am confident the airport can operate safely and as
normal,” Somchai Sawasdeepon, the company’s senior executive
vice president, told reporters in Bangkok. “But we will have a
team to monitor the situation 24 hours a day.”

Evacuations have been ordered in almost a quarter of
Bangkok’s 50 districts, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
said. An evacuation order for additional areas of Chatuchak and
Nong Khen districts was issued yesterday, the BMA said.

The government is balancing the need to protect an area
that accounts for about half of Thailand’s industrial output
with demands from residents to drain water from parts of outer
Bangkok where homes have been inundated for weeks.

Angry Residents

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Pariibatra this week ordered
police to protect water gates on canals after local residents
tried to destroy them to ease flooding around their homes.
Yingluck said today that people who destroy flood barriers may
be prosecuted.

“Residents should be aware of the effects of their
actions,” Yingluck said. “If people don’t look at the overall
picture and only think about their own situation, it will damage
the country. I will focus on the national benefit and won’t let
any groups obstruct efforts to solve the problem.”

The disaster worsened last month, when rainfall about 40
percent more than the annual average filled dams north of
Bangkok to capacity, prompting authorities to release more than
9 billion cubic meters of water down a river basin the size of
Florida, with Bangkok at its southern tip.

Factories Swamped

The deluge spread over 64 of Thailand’s 77 provinces,
damaging World Heritage-listed temples in Ayutthaya province,
destroying 15 percent of the nation’s rice crop and flooding the
homes of almost 10 million people, according to government data.

The floods have already swamped seven industrial parks,
halting production at factories operated by companies including
Western Digital Corp. and Nidec Corp. Sony Corp.

The Bank of Thailand, which last week slashed its 2011
economic growth forecast to 2.6 percent from 4.1 percent,
expects expansion to slow as the global economy weakens and the
impact of the nation’s flood crisis increases, according to the
minutes of its Oct. 19 meeting.

Rehabilitation efforts have begun in parts of Nakhon Sawan
province and will start soon in Ayutthatya as flood waters
recede, Yingluck said. The government has an initial budget of
more than 100 billion baht ($3.3 billion) to help rebuild
damaged areas, she said, adding that Cabinet will discuss new
measures to help the economy recover on Nov. 8.

“We can’t lose the battle this time,” Army chief Prayuth
Chan-Ocha told reporters yesterday. “If we’re defeated, the
damage to the country will be tremendous. Now we’re still
fighting, but the enemy is massive.”